The gull-winged, siren-screaming dive bomber that terrorised the early campaigns of the Blitzkrieg. Fitted with wind-driven 'Jericho Trumpet' sirens that shrieked during its near-vertical attack dives, it became a psychological weapon as much as a physical one. Developed by Junkers Flugzeug- und Motorenwerke.
The gull-winged, siren-screaming dive bomber that terrorised the early campaigns of the Blitzkrieg. Developed by Junkers Flugzeug- und Motorenwerke.
Photo: Unknown Author, Date between 1941 - 1942, Public domainSee Specifications for full detail.
The Junkers Ju 87 Stuka is a German single-engine dive bomber built by Junkers, first flown in 1935. Fitted with wind-driven sirens nicknamed 'Jericho Trumpets', it became closely associated with the German Blitzkrieg campaigns of 1939-40.[1]
The Stuka was highly effective while the Luftwaffe held air superiority but suffered heavy losses once it did not, and was withdrawn from the Battle of Britain after five weeks. Around 6,000 were built, including a cannon-armed anti-tank variant flown on the Eastern Front by Hans-Ulrich Rudel, the most-decorated German serviceman of the war.[1][2]
Dive bombing was the 1930s' answer to a real problem: level bombers couldn't hit anything small. Diving the whole aircraft at the target turned the machine into the bombsight, and Ernst Udet - WWI ace turned Luftwaffe procurement chief - came home from a 1933 American demonstration a dive-bombing evangelist. The Sturzkampfflugzeug ('diving combat aircraft', Stuka for short) requirement followed.[1]
Junkers' design, first flown in 1935, embraced ugliness in service of function: inverted gull wings clearing a huge propeller and stout fixed undercarriage, dive brakes, a bomb crutch that swung the main weapon clear of the prop, and - crucially - an automatic dive-recovery system that pulled the aircraft out even if its pilot had blacked out under the 6g recovery.[1]
A Stuka attack was procedure made terror: roll inverted into an 80-90 degree dive through a window in the cockpit floor, red tabs on the wings confirming dive angle, siren screaming, release at around 450 metres triggered by altimeter, automatic pull-out crushing the crew while the bomb flew on into a circle a fraction the size any level bomber could manage.[1]
Everything else was sacrificed to that dive. Fixed gear and slab sides made it slow (~390 km/h) and defensively helpless - one rear gunner against pursuit fighters - which mattered little over Poland and everything over Kent. The airframe's toughness, at least, was real: Stukas routinely came home shredded.[1]
From Poland through France, the Stuka was Blitzkrieg's flying artillery: smashing strongpoints, bridges and columns minutes ahead of the panzers, sinking more ships at Dunkirk than the Luftwaffe managed anywhere else in the West. Where German fighters ruled above it, the system was devastating.[1]
The Battle of Britain broke the spell in five weeks: against radar-directed Spitfires and Hurricanes the slow, unescortable Stuka suffered catastrophic losses - 18 August 1940, the 'Hardest Day', cost entire Gruppen - and it was withdrawn from the battle, the first unambiguous sign that the Luftwaffe could be beaten.[3]
The East gave it a second life. Over the Mediterranean it crippled carriers and cruisers; over Russia, where air cover came and went, the cannon-armed Ju 87G 'Kanonenvogel' - two 37mm guns under the wings - became the war's premier tank-killer in the hands of Hans-Ulrich Rudel, who flew a scarcely believable 2,530 combat sorties, was credited with 519 tanks and a battleship, was shot down some 30 times, and finished the war flying with one leg amputated.[2]
Around 6,000 Stukas were built through D-model refinements and the G tank-buster, long after the type's obsolescence was obvious - Germany's dive-bomber replacement programs failed serially, so the Ju 87 soldiered to 1944 before ground-attack Fw 190s finally displaced it. Its production story is the Reich's in miniature: brilliant early specialisation, no viable successor, attrition without answer.[1]
Only a handful survive - two complete examples in Chicago and London[4], plus wrecks under restoration - making the most infamous aircraft of 1940 one of the rarest today.[1]
The Stuka wrote the template of close air support - the concept every A-10, Su-25 and armed drone descends from - and simultaneously taught its limits: precision attack aircraft live and die by air superiority, a lesson re-learned in every war since. Doctrine textbooks still open the CAS chapter in a screaming dive.[1]
Culturally it remains the sound of terror-from-above: the siren is cinema shorthand for air attack itself. That an aircraft should be remembered chiefly for a noise fitted to frighten civilians is, perhaps, the most honest legacy of what it was for.[1]
No original Ju 87 remains airworthy anywhere in the world; wreckage recoveries occasionally surface from Eastern Front crash sites and are restored to static museum condition, but the type has not flown since the 1940s.
| Performance | |
| Max Speed | 222 kn (255 mph / 410 km/h) |
|---|---|
| Cruise SpeedCruise Speed — The economical speed an aircraft sustains for the bulk of a flight - lower than maximum speed, chosen for the best balance of time and fuel burn. Glossary → | ~198 mph |
| RangeRange — How far an aircraft can fly without refuelling. Quoted figures vary with payload, speed and reserves - see also ferry range and combat radius. Glossary → | 500 mi |
| Service CeilingService Ceiling — The highest altitude at which an aircraft can still climb at a useful rate (typically 100 ft/min). Above it, the air is too thin to keep climbing meaningfully. Glossary → | 26,247 ft |
| Airframe & Weight | |
| Wingspan | 45 ft 3 in |
| Length | 36 ft 1 in |
| Height | 12 ft 9 in |
| WeightMTOW — Maximum Take-Off Weight - the heaviest an aircraft is certified to be at the start of its take-off run, including fuel, crew, payload and the aircraft itself. Glossary → | empty: 6,400 lb; loaded: 9,370 lb |
| Power & Payload | |
| Engines | 1 x Junkers Jumo 211Da liquid-cooled inverted V-12, 1,200 hp (Ju 87B) |
| ArmamentArmament — The weapons an aircraft can carry: guns, missiles, bombs and rockets, whether mounted internally, on wing hardpoints, or in bomb bays. Glossary → | 2 x fixed forward-firing 7.92 mm MG 17 machine guns + 1 x flexible rear-firing MG 15; up to 1,540 lb of bombs; Ju 87G 'tank-buster' variant replaced bombs with 2 x 37 mm BK 3.7 underwing cannon |
| Crew | 2 (pilot and rear gunner/radio operator) |
| CapacityPayload — Everything an aircraft is carrying that isn't the aircraft or its fuel: passengers, cargo, or weapons. Payload and fuel usually trade off against each other. Glossary → | Bomb load of up to 1,540 lb, typically a single 500 kg bomb on a swinging cradle that pivoted clear of the propeller during the dive |
| Program & Service | |
| Manufacturer | Junkers Flugzeug- und Motorenwerke |
| Origin | Germany |
| First Flight | September 17th 1935 |
| Service Entry | January 1st 1937 |
| Retired | May 1945 |
| Number Built | 6,500 |
| Unit Cost | ~$4,700 wartime unit cost (roughly 35,000 Reichsmarks at contemporary exchange rates) - roughly $91,000 in 2026 dollars, adjusted for CPI inflation |
3 notable events involving the Junkers Ju 87, 1939 to 1942. 26 deaths are recorded across the 1 of these with a figure listed. Curated rather than exhaustive.
During a dive-bombing demonstration for senior Luftwaffe commanders near Neuhammer, 26 Ju 87Bs dove through cloud far lower than forecast. Thirteen aircraft struck the ground, killing all 26 crew aboard them.
Heavy losses to Ju 87 formations attacking targets including Thorney Island and Poling led the Luftwaffe to withdraw the Stuka from daylight operations over Britain for the rest of the battle.
A Ju 87R-2 was attacked by Soviet fighters while bombing Murmansk and crashed in the wilderness, where it lay undiscovered until recovered by a private collector in the early 1990s.
| Ju 87B | Main early-war production version used in Poland, France and the Battle of Britain, fitted with the distinctive Jericho Trumpet sirens. |
| Ju 87D | Improved, more heavily armoured version with a more powerful engine, the most numerous variant overall, used extensively on the Eastern Front. |
| Ju 87G | Dedicated tank-busting conversion carrying two underwing 37mm cannon in place of bombs, famously flown by ace Hans-Ulrich Rudel. |
Source: Vintage Aviation News
Numbered as cited in the Overview article. Click a reference to see where it's used.
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